The Tabletop RPG Thread

And... kablewie, there went another one of my players. Can't begrudge this guy too much, he's been unemployeed and finally managed to get a job, only it's on weekends. Only thing is now I don't have enough time to find a replacement, but I can't cancel the game a second week in a row. I'll GM with only two players if thats what it takes.

This is the guy who was going to be playing the AirTrucker. He wanted to be a war-vet so I created an entire war for him. I decided in my setting South America became the United States of South America (USSA), the USNA and USSA eventually allied togather and went to war against Central America. CA had lost the war on drugs and was the Pirates Cove of the America's. So the combined might of the Unite States' crushed CA, but then you had a post-WW2 Berlin deal going on. Releations declined and then there was the America Wars of 2034. This player drove a troop transport, aka a "BattleBus" as the grunts called it. Then there was this whole thing where he got shot down, was the fall guy for a political thing, lost his comission...

If nothing else, I'm getting some good NPCs out of these wanna-be players.

I'd mentioned it on the last page, but if anyone is interested, I've clearly got some openings. The game is played on Roll20 using Skype for voice chat. It's played on Sunday's Noon-4pm Eastern. Right now we try to meet every Sunday.

I’m tempted to back this Kickstarter, but the maps I’ve been pre-drawing in my Shattered Star campaign are huge. It’s not unusual for me to fill two megamats and two battlemats with maps. It would take a lot of tiles to meet my needs….

I’m tempted to back this Kickstarter, but the maps I’ve been pre-drawing in my Shattered Star campaign are huge. It’s not unusual for me to fill two megamats and two battlemats with maps. It would take a lot of tiles to meet my needs….

The name makes me want to punch someone but that could be cause I had a boss that used to use it all the damn time in place of automatic.

And is it just me or do the stretch goals seem really weak with the exception of the last one. I know those are just supposed to be bonus but a marker you can go to the store and get a marker for 1$.

They do seem kinda small but that could just be due to the fact they are supposed to be used as a "room" through they do say they connect but yeah to do a full dungeon I could see that taking alot of tiles.

I’m tempted to back this Kickstarter, but the maps I’ve been pre-drawing in my Shattered Star campaign are huge. It’s not unusual for me to fill two megamats and two battlemats with maps. It would take a lot of tiles to meet my needs….

The name makes me want to punch someone but that could be cause I had a boss that used to use it all the damn time in place of automatic.

And is it just me or do the stretch goals seem really weak with the exception of the last one. I know those are just supposed to be bonus but a marker you can go to the store and get a marker for 1$.

They do seem kinda small but that could just be due to the fact they are supposed to be used as a "room" through they do say they connect but yeah to do a full dungeon I could see that taking alot of tiles.

I’d need many more mats if I were drawing the entire dungeon.

Each module in Shattered Star features a megadungeon. For example, one of the floors in Shards of Sin would almost fill a 76″ × 60″ mat if drawn out completely. The dungeon in Curse of the Lady’s Light looks to be almost as expansive. Admittedly, my situation is a bit extreme, but drawing out floors ahead of time saves a lot of time, taking me between forty five minutes and an hour and a half to draw the needed maps before a session.

Played my first game of Pathfinders this past Friday (I've done a good bit of D&D since the Blue box days and even briefly tried some 4.0 that I disliked due to the lack of actual ROLEplay in it by the others playing and running it). T'was a lot of fun despite a DM that (honestly wasn't prepared to run the module nor) capable of much verbal embellishment to help the scenario.

Will do again. And will buy a corebook soon. Perhaps even tonight.

Just sharing because it's the fault of you bastards I even tried it.

I blame you all for my soon-to-be weekly habit, multiple player deaths (mostly my own I hope) and boisterous laughter.

Ah, but I am one of those odd ducks; who actually don't have a tablet or smartphone. Might get another laptop worth lugging around again sometime; but not planning on it soon as I'd typically rather spend my money on improving my desktop(s).

Now, if they didn't force those pants-on-head retarded data plans on phone on devices like that in the U.S. I probably would've gotten one or the other; but I have no need for them at the current time when I feel like I'm being luxury-taxed out the ass.

I GM'ed my first game Saturday night and except for one player not showing up (it was an online game) things went really well.

I had the players start on a giant Star Cruisier sent through a Jumpgate to investigate a previously unexplored (by them) system.

The characters included a former flight instructor demoted to mess hall Chef after causing the death of a student. A man found drifting in space who was reborn as a cyborg (for some reason with a body the size of a child) with knowledge of the human body and mechanical engineering. And lastly a female soldier/sharpshooter who has a problem with authority.

I started them off with an inter-ship Basketball game against a three man npc team. I wanted to use this to introduce them to the rules (Fate) in a fun way. They seemed to really like it and easily picked up on my hint about there being no referee (this was Military Ball, not some kiddie game). The highlight was the Chef character being insulted before the jump off, which caused him to ignore the ball, jump up, and then Dive Kick his verbal attacker. Which resulted in the two spending the rest of the basketball game wresteling around on the ground until the ship was attacked.

I got a little worried when the players all wanted to split up and go to different areas of the fairly big ship, but a well placed explosion was able to distract them long enough for other events to motivate them to stick together.

I really like how smooth combat plays in Fate, or maybe it is just how I ended up doing it. I let the players take whatever type of action they want as a defensive move instead of just dodge. For example, one of the players was about to get shot while he had finished his last turn charging toward an npc. Instead of just rolling to see if the NPC missed, I let him roll to slide into the NPC's legs and knock him over (still causes a miss). Was still and attack roll vs a defense roll but the outcome was more entertaining.

I started them off with an inter-ship Basketball game against a three man npc team. I wanted to use this to introduce them to the rules (Fate) in a fun way. They seemed to really like it and easily picked up on my hint about there being no referee (this was Military Ball, not some kiddie game). The highlight was the Chef character being insulted before the jump off, which caused him to ignore the ball, jump up, and then Dive Kick his verbal attacker. Which resulted in the two spending the rest of the basketball game wresteling around on the ground until the ship was attacked.

The kickstarter for the deluxe and regular 3rd edition of Exalted went live today...and was fully funded in 18 minutes. They've blown past their initial two bonus gifts and have added several more. I've already backed.

The kickstarter for the deluxe and regular 3rd edition of Exalted went live today...and was fully funded in 18 minutes. They've blown past their initial two bonus gifts and have added several more. I've already backed.

I've never even cracked so much as a flyer about Exalted before - which is strange because my group did nothing but White Wolf stuff for a couple of years (granted that was a decade ago ). So it's WW fantasy or heroes or both or neither exactly?

I've never even cracked so much as a flyer about Exalted before - which is strange because my group did nothing but White Wolf stuff for a couple of years (granted that was a decade ago ). So it's WW fantasy or heroes or both or neither exactly?

It's a possible prehistory for oWoD. The Exalted are mortal heroes who were empowered by the gods initially in order to fight the original lords of Creation, the Primordials. The Celestial Exalted, empowered by the Unconquered Sun, Luna, and the Five Maidens, are empowered by an exaltation that seeks heroic mortals out at moments of destiny appropriate to the exaltation. The Dragon-blooded, originally the foot soldiers for the Celestial Exalted and now the rulers of Creation, are exalted by their bloodlines. Some of the Solar exaltations were stolen and corrupted into Abyssal and Infernal exaltations.

There's a lot more, and they talk about it in the kickstarter. It's a really cool setting.

exalted is ww's anime inspired dialed to 11 bizzaro world where all the PC's run around with the powers of son goku. everyone is basically a demigod. its the darling of rpg.net its also still storyteller system (for good or bad...)

So I've only ever gamed with friends (back in seattle) and a small group of guys met through here (that didn't work out because jerbs) - what's a good way to go about trying to find a campaign with space for new members? Check out the FLGS? Boards somewhere? I'm in the greater DC area if anybody has area specific suggestions (hi Telwar).

So I've only ever gamed with friends (back in seattle) and a small group of guys met through here (that didn't work out because jerbs) - what's a good way to go about trying to find a campaign with space for new members? Check out the FLGS? Boards somewhere? I'm in the greater DC area if anybody has area specific suggestions (hi Telwar).

I think Meetup.com is the typical recommendation, although I've had mixed success with that myself.

So I've only ever gamed with friends (back in seattle) and a small group of guys met through here (that didn't work out because jerbs) - what's a good way to go about trying to find a campaign with space for new members? Check out the FLGS? Boards somewhere? I'm in the greater DC area if anybody has area specific suggestions (hi Telwar).

Well, I'm personally looking forward to doing some Pathfinder tonight (which is pretty much A&D v3.5) and I was pleasantly surprised at how popular it was last week. So, if you liked doing D&D, I'd recommend you check out the FLGS(s) near you to see if they have any groups meeting up there. Or if you are braver (and probably patient enough to wait on a reply) you could try and goto Paizo.com to the Pathfinder Society links and ask them for info on local groups. I say to contact them and not just rely on the links per state they have on their webpage because I know that they don't have links to at least 2 places that are in the town I'm in, but heard about from other players last week.

I’ve gone back and forth about formalizing exploration in my home campaign. I used ‘dungeon rounds’ for a while, and they did a good job of encouraging the players to interact more with the dungeon. I’ve moved away from them somewhat in my Shattered Star campaign, but I’m not sure that’s been for the best. However, even when I did use them, I never explicitly enumerated what you could do during them. It’s worrisome that they feel the need to enumerate actions for dungeon and overland rounds because it risks encouraging limited thinking by the players.

The interaction stuff looks like a lighter version of 3e’s system with a bit of a nod to D&D Encounters NPC characteristics. I like the 3e system, so I don’t really have a problem with that. It works pretty well for determining whether an NPC will grant a favor or tell the PCs a secret.

Paizo finalized this month’s subscription order yesterday, so I was able to download the Ultimate Campaign PDF and start looking through it. My initial reaction is that it’s not as bad as I thought it’d be. There are some things that I definitely won’t be using, but there are also some nice ideas. I’m still not a fan of the kingdom building rules, but they are an improvement over the rules presented in Kingmaker.

exalted is ww's anime inspired dialed to 11 bizzaro world where all the PC's run around with the powers of son goku. everyone is basically a demigod. its the darling of rpg.net its also still storyteller system (for good or bad...)

Having played the system a few times with friends, it really does feel like an anime where people scream "FLAMING Meteor ATTACK!" and the arrow they fire splits into a hundred chunks of flaming meteors that wipe out a human regiment that was getting ready to attack you.

The same power that some characters get on the battle field, others get in social situations. So everything is WAY over the top.

Having played the system a few times with friends, it really does feel like an anime where people scream "FLAMING Meteor ATTACK!" and the arrow they fire splits into a hundred chunks of flaming meteors that wipe out a human regiment that was getting ready to attack you.

The same power that some characters get on the battle field, others get in social situations. So everything is WAY over the top.

That sounds pretty funny (or at the least the potential for it to be).

I’ve had the final PDFs for a while, but my hardcopy Tenra Bansho Zero books arrived in the mail today. The books are pretty nice. I really need to sit down and give the system a read, but I’ve got so much Pathfinder stuff still.

squeee! new mekton being kickstarted. this is a follow up to mekton zeta/zeta+ being done by Mike Pondsmith. very cool! Say its using the same system as its predecessor Mekton Zeta which would be Interlock and not Fuzion (Boooo I love Fuzion!)

I’ve had the final PDFs for a while, but my hardcopy Tenra Bansho Zero books arrived in the mail today. The books are pretty nice. I really need to sit down and give the system a read, but I’ve got so much Pathfinder stuff still.

Got my TBZ books too, last week -- think this might be the first RPG my kid has been interested in, too, which is nice.

Today I was part of a 4e one-shot where the DM used Heroscape terrain for the map. Yes. it was awesome. Also of note, goblin: I know that you think it's cute that you are pursuing a 500lb warforged up a ladder after he threw you off of a 35ft high wall. Just remember that all he has to do is let go and you end up a green paste beneath his metal heels.

No Legends & Lore this week, so I give you this interview with Mike Mearls. I really wish his answers were more in depth. The healing question is particularly interesting to me because on one hand my players don’t particularly like Pathfinder’s expectation of consumable use, but on the other they found 4e too much like a video game.

No Legends & Lore this week, so I give you this interview with Mike Mearls. I really wish his answers were more in depth. The healing question is particularly interesting to me because on one hand my players don’t particularly like Pathfinder’s expectation of consumable use, but on the other they found 4e too much like a video game.

No Legends & Lore this week, so I give you this interview with Mike Mearls. I really wish his answers were more in depth. The healing question is particularly interesting to me because on one hand my players don’t particularly like Pathfinder’s expectation of consumable use, but on the other they found 4e too much like a video game.

The following contains spoilers for the Mines of Madness adventure in the current D&D Next playtest packet.

Seriously.

So... I've back-ported the Mines of Madness for my 4ed group. Yesterday they rescued the goblin Hug Hug from cockatrices and he's currently tagging along with the party. The druid (played by my wife) basically kept the rest of the party from killing him out of hand and is growing a little attached to "her minion".

Later in the dungeon there is a room that cannot be escaped without a party member willingly sacrificing themselves. Hug Hug will lay down his life so that a party member doesn't have to. I'm quietly ensuring that he stays alive so that he can make that sacrifice. However, I didn't foresee the attachment my wife would get to the little blighter.

No Legends & Lore this week, so I give you this interview with Mike Mearls. I really wish his answers were more in depth. The healing question is particularly interesting to me because on one hand my players don’t particularly like Pathfinder’s expectation of consumable use, but on the other they found 4e too much like a video game.

Well, they could try and make in-combat cast heals worth the effort, which is what 4e did, just with a silly-sounding name.

But the 3/.5 model of Cure (something) Wounds doesn't make in-combat healing worth nearly enough. It's not until you hit Heal that you are able to actually make it worth the effort. Otherwise, it's faster/more efficient to just kill it faster and prevent that incoming damage, and then squirt out charges from a minimum-level CLW wand after the fight.

To be honest, after having my last 3.5 character, a goliath barbarian-cleric, take a gnome cleric cohort solely to wear him as a backpack so he could cast Heal on my character once/round*, I kind of prefer the 4e model.

* - With my low, low AC at 15th level, that wound up being pretty much what he did. He also buffed once in a while.

To be honest, after having my last 3.5 character, a goliath barbarian-cleric, take a gnome cleric cohort solely to wear him as a backpack so he could cast Heal on my character once/round*, I kind of prefer the 4e model.

Which is funny because by that level the gnome cleric should be one of the most powerful clerics of a nation, at the very least equal to a cardinal, if not the Pope himself.

No Legends & Lore this week, so I give you this interview with Mike Mearls. I really wish his answers were more in depth. The healing question is particularly interesting to me because on one hand my players don’t particularly like Pathfinder’s expectation of consumable use, but on the other they found 4e too much like a video game.

Well, they could try and make in-combat cast heals worth the effort, which is what 4e did, just with a silly-sounding name.

But the 3/.5 model of Cure (something) Wounds doesn't make in-combat healing worth nearly enough. It's not until you hit Heal that you are able to actually make it worth the effort. Otherwise, it's faster/more efficient to just kill it faster and prevent that incoming damage, and then squirt out charges from a minimum-level CLW wand after the fight.

Making healing ‘worth the effort’ would put pressure on people to play a dedicated healer. I thought the ‘hit dice’ healing mechanic in earlier playtests was a pretty good compromise, but it apparently wasn’t very popular. I find it very annoying that on one hand, people don’t like relying consumables, but on the other hand, they don’t like equivalent abstractions, and then on the third hand, they don’t want dedicated healers to be required. Of course, not everyone is every camp, but they’re all loud enough to guarantee that whatever solution we get will be crappy. Last we heard, cleric healing will probably be required.